How The Surge Failed

PLUS: Your inside scoop on all the Pentagon’s back-stabbing...OMG, maybe we are in a recession...The bail savior of New Bedford...Al Qaeda is the new Kremlin...What the drop out stats are hiding...And we’re sick of all this sex on planes. It’s March 21st, and our blood is pumping for monogamy. It’s on.

Celebration Excuse

“The Rock” is no more (Clint Eastwood will miss you), Hollywood gets the computer animation bug, and U.S. Olympic athletes are really pissed. It’s March 21 and here’s why Mic Check’s thinking of changing names.

1935

Shah Reza Pahlavi formally asks the international community to call Persia by its native name, Iran. Mic Check wants to know, isn’t 2,000 years a little too late in the game to change your name?

1952

The Moondog Coronation Ball, the first rock and roll concert, is held. Rockers are understandably dismayed by the un-hardcore name and decide to head bang at home.

1963

Alcatraz closes down and prisoners are floored they won’t ever get to reenact “Escape From Alcatraz.”

1965

Hallelujah! Martin Luther King Jr. leads 3,200 sweaty people on the start of the third and finally successful civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama.

1971

The first movie to use computer animation opens and actors in dinosaur costumes and neck braces everywhere rejoice. (Try filming a Quidditch game pre-computer
animation.)

1980

President Jimmy Carter announces a U.S. boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan. 28 years later, Tibet is crossing its fingers for a repeat this year in China.

A Birthday Fugue For You

1685: Johann Bach, classical music composer you listened to in the womb
1962: Actress Rosie O’Donnell, the talk show host who talked too much on “The View”
1978: K-Fed, enterprising hip hop “artist” and antihero of Britney’s “E True Hollywood Story”

Daybook

Potus

Retreats back to Camp David to forget about the economy.

Stumpin’

Last chance for independent presidential candidates to eat potatoes and get ballot access for general election in Idaho.

Congress

Senate
Meets at 11 a.m. in pro forma session.
House
Not in session…Spring District Work Period.

TV

Watch at work

Oprah: Polygamy in America: Lisa Ling Reports (R 10/26/07) The View: ultra friendly David Schwimmer, Thandie Newton, Natasha Bedingfield
Regis & Kelly: Katherine Hiegl, Anthony Hopkins, Casey Affleck, Jarod Miller
Martha: Easter show!
Ellen: Leslie Mann, “Dancing with the Stars” combo Marlee Matlin and Fabian Sanchez, singer Erykah Badu

Stay up late

Letterman: Sean “Diddy” Combs, Al Lubel (R 2/22/08)
Leno: X-rated radio host Adam Carolla, journalist Geraldo Rivera, the Black Crowes
Ferguson: Ben Kingsley, Laura Prepon, Lupe Fiasco
Conan: heartthrob Ryan Phillippe, Big Show
Daly: ex-Vice contributor Gavin McInnes, Marisa “Perfect 10” Miller, Shiny Toy Guns
Kimmel: interior designer Nate Berkus, Mary J. Blige, Missy Higgins (R 2/26/08)

 

Eavesdrop

STEAL THIS AUDIO

Did The Surge Work?

Who: Retired Major General Robert Scales; Professor Andrew Bacevich of Boston University; and
Michèle Flournoy, President and Co-Founder of the Center for New American Security

What: A panel at the Center for American Progress entitled “Debating the Surge in Iraq” [American Progress]

Why You Should Care: Whether we like it or not, resolving American involvement in Iraq will be a primary concern of the next President. It’s time to assess the situation on the ground, understand it in its strategic context, and ask ourselves “where does America go from here?” Might we suggest...a Strategic Reset? [American Progress]

The Audio

The Surge

  • Michele Flournoy: “The security gains that we’ve seen are real, but they are perishable...”
    Michele Flournoy, on Perishable — You do not have sufficient permissions to view this object.
  • Robert Scales: “The surge will have to end, well, begin to end in June and continue to draw down not because of any shift in grand strategy, but simply the available resources to continue the surge will simply diminish.”
    Robert Scales, on Resources — You do not have sufficient permissions to view this object.

The Limits of American Power

  • Andrew Bacevich, on what we’ve learned from Bush’s failure in Iraq.
    Andrew Bacevich, on What We’ve Learned — You do not have sufficient permissions to view this object.
  • Bacevich suggests that Bush’s answer to combating terrorism (war, global war, and open-ended global war) might need a little diversification.
    Andrew Bacevich, on War — You do not have sufficient permissions to view this object.

Where Do We Go From Here?

  • Michele Flournoy: “This Administration has ten more months in office, and needs to be held accountable for pushing to improve the situation to the extent it can.”
    Michele Flournoy, on This Administration — You do not have sufficient permissions to view this object.
  • Michele Flournoy: “Restoring America’s credibility in the world is not only taking proper action on Iraq, it is broadening the aperture to say there is a world out there where we have broader interests, where our leadership has declined and it’s very much needed.”
    Michele Flournoy, on Broadening The Aperture — You do not have sufficient permissions to view this object.

Popularity Contest

Headlines. So hot right now. Headlines.

NYT: Barack Obama’s Speech on Race

WP: Cheney Doesn’t Care What You Think

LAT: Judge allows questions about how Clinton documents are released

USAT: Revote donors tied to Clinton

ABC: Soggy Midwest Braces for More Flooding

CBS: Daughter Dying, Dad Can’t Leave Prison

NBC: Clinton takes lead over Obama in national poll

CNN: Officials: Woman dies after stingray strikes her

FOX: French Woman Who Sought Euthanasia Dies

Masthead

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Mic Check is produced every weekday by Christy Harvey, Grant Ginder and Ben Furnas, and is a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Read more about Mic Check.

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